


Selcouth

by the_writer



Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL Brothers - mentioned, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Light Angst, Medical Inaccuracies, Nakamaship, No editing or beta we die like men, Post-Marineford, Post-Time Skip, a slightly darker take on marineford
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 12:54:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15864030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_writer/pseuds/the_writer
Summary: His captain was like a storm, going where ever caught his fancy, disregarding all rules and laws and every person, man or woman, marine or pirate, who ever told him his dream was impossible. Because for some odd reason, the weakest of the Blues had given him Luffy, standing in the middle of that damned courtyard without a care in the world, asking for the impossible, asking a pirate hunter to become a pirate.





	Selcouth

**Author's Note:**

> Or, loosely based on the word prompt:  
> A realizes how little they know about B, and learns that B isn't naive or innocent as most people would like to believe.

The storm hadn’t given any warning when the dark clouds had started overhead, mirthless black clouds which blotted out the sky as within minutes thick raindrops spotted the deck, Nami’s sharp voice reining them in sync as feet pounded the deck as the winds started to bellow, one by one the crew going about their duties as fishing poles were left abandoned and a chess board laid crumpled. Sheets of rain thundered down upon the decking as boots and bare feet alike scurried across the deck, numbing palms tying heavy canvas sails and slick rigging slipping through tired fingers as each member worked to complete their assigned duties as quickly as humanly possible.

The ship swayed to and fro beneath his feet, the floorboards rocking as barrels tipped and shuddered in their place, loose ropes and bindings straying from their rightful place as wayward waves crashed against the hull. The sounds of shouts and commands ripped away from open mouths as the conquering winds yanked the small ship this way and that, last minute preparations being fulfilled as a sickening crack thundered overhead, a brief stroke of light filling the doorway as Zoro stumbled down the slick steps. Clicking the door behind him, Zoro made his way across the lounge, the lone blue light of the broad aquarium lighting his way as heavy boots knocked against smooth adam wood as he followed, the sounds of his crew quieting as they too sought shelter, footsteps clacking overhead as he continued. 

Pressing a palm against a barren wall, Zoro pushed, following his captain’s presence the best he could despite his feet urging him the other way. A seam in the paneling popped open, an entranceway sliding back, tight enough to let the smaller members squeeze through. Grunting, Zoro untied the swords at his hip, shoving them through first before wiggling his way through, the edges of his clothes catching on the sharp edges and jagged splinters of the unused pathway, the first mate clicking the door shut behind him before placing his sheaths back in their former place as he continued on his way through the Sunny’s emergency passages. 

The floor beneath him sudden dipped, scarred hands scrambling at rough siding as the storm outside howled, claws digging into the hull as Zoro waited in the darkness, the Sunny groaning against the wind as the sound of splintering was heard on deck, quickly paired with what Zoro would expect to be Franky’s colorful curse of displeasure. 

Passing by a multitude of other tightly closed doors, Zoro shrugged his way through, never minding the cobwebs clinging to his shoulders and the disrupted dust laid before him as his eyes followed, slivers of light streaming through the paneling as he walked, dust climbing into his lungs as he stifled his urge to cough as he finally nudged a partially open door, a lantern hanging before him as the fiery light waved to him, the whistling of the winds dull and faded as he descended the stairs in front of him, wet footprints leading his way down the short steps as he turns a corner and continues downward, the sound of raging waves getting louder and louder as he stops at a common door. 

It was plain, simple and unused with a rusty doorknob, unlike the other doors across the ship, sanded and polished and sometimes engraved. Turning the handle carefully, the door gives way with a jolt, hinges screaming in a tune to match the roar of the winds above as light pours from the room. Flinching back from the sudden light, Zoro enters anyways, lone eye searching the abandoned room. Closing the door behind him, Zoro searches, the lights dimming considerably as the musty air threatened to choke him, the air thick and stale, a bated breath never released. 

Walking carefully around a stack of boxes Zoro finds him, sprawled out against a empty wall, tucked behind the crates and an abandoned corner, legs tossed haphazardly with a hand resting on his chest, thin fingers trailing the edges of the old scar, playing on the uneven skin as dark eyes watched from under the brim of a trademark straw hat.

“You know Chopper would be happy to help you.” Zoro grunts, moving to sit besides his captain.

“Yeah, Chopper’s the best.” Luffy replies simply, not moving an inch as Zoro steps closer.

Zoro settles against the hardwood, a loose panel digging into his side as he shifts fruitlessly, the sharp wood worming it's way between his ribs as he stills, giving in to the uncomfortable position as he watches from the corner of his eye. A smile had worked its way onto Luffy’s face, small and close mouthed, but still present and bright, making the curved scar under his eye shift on his tanned skin. 

It was one of the things Zoro had never questioned, nor had one of the crew chosen to ask about the prominent scar adorning their captain’s face. It had simply been an unspoken rule between Zoro and Luffy, established on the small row boat with a crooked mast. They had decided that the past was to stay in the past, and in turn the others had adopted the rule as well. But it had just been how he and Luffy worked. Luffy never asked about his island and Kuina, and in turn Zoro never asked about the scar or the island he and Ace had come from. 

But things were different now. It had been almost three years since their meeting at the marine plaza under the sweltering heat - and they had survived it all. From Arlong to Alabasta to Thriller Bark to Sabaody. They had lived through two long years of separation. And yet here they were, hiding in a forgotten storage room, a wild storm clawing at the hull beneath them.

“Who gave you that scar?” Zoro blurted, mouth moving on it’s own accord. “The one under your eye.”

It was silent for a moment, before a sun lit laugh echoed the dust covered room, the lone candle suddenly seeming so much brighter as Luffy grinned, “Me.”

“...What?” Zoro responded dumbly. 

“I wanted to show courage,” Luffy simply grinned, a quiet signature laugh bubbling from his lips as a far off look set upon his bright brown eyes.

“By taking a knife to your face?” Zoro asked incredulously. 

A pout twisted his face down, “I was seven.” 

Zoro gave a disbelieving snort, rolling his head back against the paneling as the storm continued to rage, a surge of phantom pain, trailing across his stump as the ship dipped and jolted. Zoro was familiar with pain, though unlike Luffy, the scars adorning Zoro’s flesh never ached, the large ‘X’ on his captain’s chest a constant reminder of their separation. A reminder of how much each of them had changed, adapted, had grown stronger. A reminder of how little they now knew each other. And Zoro had seen it, how his crew mates now held themselves, heads held high and sharp eyes, cautious yet confident - like they all remembered the hardships they had faced in Paradise, of Little Garden and false gods, of Ennis Lobby and Thriller Bark. How some battles had left them stranded, scattered, wondering on more than one occasion if one of their nakama was going to live till morning, hoping that death would plague someone else, anyone else, just not one of _theirs_.

How if a place called Paradise had been where Ace had been executed, where Luffy could have been killed, where the strongest pirate of the seas had fallen, Zoro could barely imagine what they would face in the New World. 

Zoro clears his throat, quiet compared to the noise of the thundering waves outside the hull, shifting once more against the irritating plank jutting into his ribs, “I should have been there,” Zoro starts, the words awkward on his tongue, remembering the newspaper that had been dropped at Kuraigana months after the battle, confirming word from Mihawk, ranting on and on about the victorious battle between Marines and Whitebeard, how Edward Newgate had died and hailing the death of Portgas D. Ace, the son of the former Pirate King, his captain’s brother, the closest person Luffy had while growing up in the East Blue. “I should have fought at your side, Captain.” 

Zoro doesn’t dare to apologize for Ace, doesn’t offer condolences or pity or how his brother must be in a better place. Zoro hadn’t wanted to hear those things after Kuina, as if a few words would suddenly make her death less painful, and he doesn’t dare give those words to the one person he trusts more than anything. 

Luffy rubs at his chest again, lips still upturned in his constant smile, eyes crinkled in what only Zoro knew to be well concealed discomfort, reminding Zoro of something Chopper had once said - something about nerves and bad weather and strangeness of the Grand Line. 

It's quiet for a moment, “What was it like?” Zoro whispers, like it's sacred, a topic never to be mentioned, “...Marineford?”

“Bloody.” Luffy answers without hesitation, “Loud.”

It's silent again, and Zoro waits, watching Luffy shift in the corner of his eye as he stares at the wall across from them, dusty yet smooth and made with care, making Zoro wonder again why this room existed. 

“It’s just wrong, y’know?” He says, smile dimming in the candlelight, “That I’m the last of my brothers.”

“...How many brothers do- did you have?”

A large grin spreads across Luffy’s face, “Just Ace and Sabo,” he confesses, “They were the best!” 

Belatedly, Zoro realizes how little he knows about his captain, and knows him well enough to know all he need to do is ask, and Luffy would tell him everything. Part of him hesitates, the chance of Kuina being brought up a harsh tug at his chest, but he prompts anyways, listening as Luffy starts, no hesitation or lies, only the blunt honesty and truth Zoro had come to appreciate. 

He listens as Luffy tells him about Shanks, how he had proven his courage and eaten his devil fruit, how Garp had left him with Dadan, a mountain bandit of all things, and how he had met Ace. How he had later met Sabo and how they had made Dawn Island their home. Luffy speaks with a giant grin, how they had become brothers, how they were to be pirates, full of promises and hope and strength Luffy had never been able to beat. Zoro doesn’t ask questions or make comment, simply listening as Luffy goes on to tell him of Grey Terminal, how it had burned to the ground around him and Ace, how Sabo had tried to set sail, to leave, but had been blown out of the water by the celestial dragons. How it had been then just Ace and Luffy, an incomplete trio for six summers, before Ace had left too. 

Zoro stays quiet, lets a comfortable silence settle over them as the storm continues to wail around them, buffered by polished wood and steel. Zoro ponders for a moment, simply basking in the presence of his captain, an undying force of will made of determination and tightly coiled muscle, of bright eyes and tanned skin and a worn straw hat. 

His captain was like a storm, going where ever caught his fancy, disregarding all rules and laws and every person, man or woman, marine or pirate, who ever told him his dream was impossible. Because for some odd reason, the weakest of the Blues had given him Luffy, standing in the middle of that damned courtyard without a care in the world, asking for the impossible, asking a pirate hunter to become a pirate. 

He wonders if that's how Luffy does it, how he always smiles and shines brighter than the sun, all dark eyes and even darker hair, how everything must seem fantastic and amazing compared to the deaths of his brothers, of breaking in and out of an inescapable prison, running head first into a war way out of his league, of battling warlords and punching celestial dragons in the face. Because he’s Luffy, the captain who defied everything Zoro once knew, all with joyous smiles and laughter, how he’s able to look out at the ocean with a look as if he _knows_ that they will all succeed, as if any other option is the thing which is impossible. 

They sit in comfortable silence, even long after Luffy finishes, simply resting besides one another, listening to the storm slowly settle around them, the rumbling thunder ceasing and the winds dying to a harsh breeze, how the sound of rain lightens and then stops, like a few shared words were enough to stop the sky from tearing itself apart. Zoro watches as Luffy practically leaps to his feet, giving the painful nerves on his chest one last trail of his fingers before ruffling Zoro’s bright green hair quickly, dashing out of the room with reckless abandon, wide grin never failing as Luffy runs out of sight. 

With a huff, Zoro rises to his feet, exiting the room slowly, taking the lone candle with him as he follows, the path back seeming to stretch and turn, Zoro entering doors at random, trying his best to stay out of Usopp and Franky’s way, hauling boards and nails back and forth, Chopper bouncing about as Zoro finally gets to the deck. 

Zoro settles in his familiar spot against the railing, shifting slightly under the bright rays of the sun, warming his skin as he watched with his lone eye as activities resumed without a fault. He sighed as Nami started to tend her tangerine trees, snipping off broken branches and patching torn tufts of grass, Chopper shuffling crates and barrels to their correct places on deck, Franky hurrying about, working inch by inch to repair the Sunny to its former glory. He stifled a grimace as he watched their blond cook swoon over Robin as she set up her usual tea table and one of her many books, as Brook went below with Usopp to check for any damage, as their captain jumped from person to person, an ever present grin on his face as he bounced along, an unexplained phenomenon to the world. 

A few feet away from him Robin settled, cracking open her book with a certain finesse only possible of their resident archeologist, her long black hair drifting in the slight breeze. 

“There’s a word for him you know,” Robin spoke, as Zoro closed his eye, sleep pulling at his lids as he sat, the familiar weight of his swords resting peacefully in his grasp. 

Zoro grunted, eyes remaining closed as he listened to frigid waves quietly lapping at the sides of the golden ship, listening to a squabble breaking out on the other side of the deck, a familiar illustrious laugh spiking the air. 

“Yes.” Robin spoke with a smile tinting her unwavering voice, neither of the two looking at one another, “Selcouth.”

“Oh?” Zoro murmured, slumber starting to pull him under as a squawk of pain was heard, a smile edging it's way onto the swordsman's face as he continued to hear Sanji’s colorful words raging across the damp decking.

“It means rare and strange, yet wondrous.” Robin says, followed by the rustle of a flipping page, “A true anomaly.”

A scoff found it's way from Zoro’s chest and he shook his head, his eye cracking open just as Usopp dodged a kick from their own shitty cook, Luffy sitting cross legged on the dangerously thin railing as his knees bounced, a wide smile on his face as eager eyes watched the ongoing fight, rooting and cheering with warped tan skin and weathered straw hat. Short and thin with childish glee paired with a never faltering determination. The captain which told them that their dreams were all possible, despite everyone who screamed and ranted otherwise. The man who denied the existence of every obstacle to ever come their way. The one who would become the future Pirate King.

“Nah, he’s just Luffy.”


End file.
